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Druids as tanks
thumb|The Druid Bear Form Shapeshift into a bear, increasing Attack Power by 3 * level, Armor contribution from items by 180%/360%, and Health by Y. Also protects the caster from polymorph effects and allows the use of various bear abilities. One of two tanking classes in the game, the druid is able to enter bear form and take the role of Tanking. The Bear Form The druid has two tanking forms: Bear Form obtained by quest at level 10 and Dire Bear Form obtained via trainer at level 40. The forms are the same except that Dire Bear has an even greater armor boost compared to bear form. The Bear Form is the druid tank form. When a druid shapeshifts into bear the following things happen: * Health: The Druid's base health is increased by 1240 (at level 60) * Attack Power: The Druid gains Attack Power equal to their level * 3 (180 Attack at level 60). * Armor: The druid gains a 180%/360% armor boost from items (depending on Bear/Dire Bear form). The bonus is additive, meaning that if you have 1000 armor from items, Bear form will grant you: 1000 + 1000 * 1.8 = 2800 armor from items, while Dire Bear will grant you 1000 + 1000 * 3.6 = 4600 armor. * Threat (Aggro): The druid will obtain a 30% increase in all threat generated. This is the same bonus that the warrior is granted by Defensive Stance. Tanking-related talents All of the druid trees have talents which improve tanking ability in some way. This also means most "tanking-specced" druids will have talent points in all trees. The classic druid tanking spec is 11/33/7. * With 5/5 Natural Weapons, Tier 2 Balance: Physical damage done is increased by 10% (resulting in effectively a 10% increase in threat caused). * With 1/1 Omen of Clarity, Tier 3 Balance: Allows the druid to enter a clearcasting state on a melee attack, reducing the mana/energy/rage cost of the next ability by 100% (effectively giving a rage-free maul or swipe「sidenote: OoC can proc on any melee hit, making it possible to Swipe spam with it indefinitly」). * With 5/5 Ferocity, Tier 1 Feral Combat: Rage cost on Maul and Swipe is reduced by 5. * With 5/5 Feral Instinct, Tier 2 Feral Combat: Threat generated is increased by 15% while in Bear Form (Threat modifier goes from 30% to 45%). * With 5/5 Thick Hide, Tier 2 Feral Combat: Increases armor benefit by 10%. So the multiplier for armor is 5.06 instead of 4.6 for Dire Bear form. * With 5/5 http://www.wowwiki.com/Druid_Talents#Thick_Hide, Tier 2 Feral Combat: Armor contribution from items in any form is increased by 10%. The Bear Form multiplier comes on top of this, giving an effective 4.6*1.1 (506%) armor increase from a druid in caster form without this talent. * With 1/1 Feral Charge, Tier 3 Feral Combat: Allows the druid to charge in Bear Form. This ability works like a warrior's Intercept except it does not require stance switching and is on 15 second cooldown. * With 3/3 Sharpened Claws, Tier 3 Feral Combat: Critical Strike chance is increased by 6% while in Bear Form. * With 3/3 Predatory Strikes, Tier 4 Feral Combat: Attack Power in increased by 150% of level (to a max of 90 Attack Power at level 60). * With 2/2 Primal Fury, Tier 4 Feral Combat: The druid gains 5 rage for every critical hit they do in Bear Form. * With 1/1 Fearie Fire (Feral), Tier 5 Feral Combat: Decreases the armor of the target by 505. This ability does not stack with itself, does not cost any rage and is on a 6 second cooldown. Also generates a small amount of threat. * With 5/5 Heart of the Wild, Tier 6 Feral Combat: Stamina is increased by 20% granting an additional Health boost. * With 5/5 Furor, Tier 1 Restoration: The druid gains 10 Rage everytime they switch to Bear/Dire Bear Form. * With 2/2 Improved Enrage, Tier 2 Restoration: The druid gains 10 additional rage instantly upon using Enrage. Bears Only, No Lions and Panthers, Please To date, a Druid has tanked every raid instance currently available, and every boss including Nefarian, despite their Class Call. A Druid in Bear form is in itself a very viable tank. A Protection-specialized Warrior is usually the most accepted Main Tank for large 40-man raids but a Feral Druid specialized for Tanking is just as viable if not more so than an Arms/Fury warrior for almost all of the current game content, both as an Main Tank and an Off Tank. We will now go through the different aspects of tanking, as a druid. Advantages to a druid tank One of the greatest advantages a Bear Tank has is the potential to generate the greatest amount of threat in the game and thus hold aggro very well (More on this below). Another is the massive amounts of physical punishment they can take since typically a Bear Tank specialized Feral Druid will have more armor and more hit points than a comparably geared Warrior. Druids are immune to Polymorph and Mind Control effects (though not Charmed effects like [Hakkar's] power). Along with immunity to polymorph, druids are almost impossible to Snare in any way. Encounters that "snare" the tank which causes the loss in aggro, druids can just do a Double Shift and get right back to tanking. Druids can't be Disarmed. Druids have Feral Charge, which allows them to almost instantly re-engage a mob after getting Knocked Back. Disadvantages to a druid tank Druids cannot use consumables (e.g. potions, healthstones, etc.) in bear form. Druids have limited "oh crap" options (Druids only have Frenzied Regeneration in Bear form although in some situations they can risk preforming a double-shift to use a consumable or cast spells like Barkskin+Tranquility, Regrowth/Rejuvenation, or Nature's Swiftness+Healing Touch「that is, if the druid has specialized the Regrowth Talent, Nature's Swiftness」). Druids do not have an innate ability to counter fear. While Fear Ward and Tremor Totems are the preferred way to counter Fear, Druids may also make use of one of two trinkets (the Insignia of the Alliance/Insignia of the Horde and the Glimmering Mithril Insignia if the druid has chosen Blacksmithing) but these are reliant on long cooldowns. Damage Migitation and Damage Avoidance Druids have fewer ways of avoiding damage, so they must specialize their gear in order to maximize their advantages in damage mitigation. They rely heavily on their armor to mitigate physical damage and their large hit point pool to provide a more comfortable buffer for their healers. Druids absorb devastating hits so do well on mobs and bosses that hit hard. A Bear Tank's strategy is to absorb critical strikes and crushing blows, relying on the high armor and stamina to survive the big hits instead of trying to avoid them. Since they rely more on mitigation than avoidance, the less spiky damage is often easier to heal as longer cast heals can be used without as much fear of overhealing during strings of Avoidances and underhealing during strings of Critical Strikes and Crushing Blows. Druids cannot Parry or Block so while +Defense gear is important, helping their Dodge as well as decreasing the amount of Critical Strikes and hits taken, it is not as essential for a Bear Tank. Part of this is because of the poor itemization of +Defense Leather armor and partly because Bear Tanks are more concerned with Damage Mitigation versus Damage Avoidance. Threat Generation Based on extensive mathmatical testing, and verified by empirical experiences, it is clear a Bear Tank's Threat Per Second potential is extremely high. Many people are confused why this is the case. The answer if that Bear Tanks generate threat in a different manner than Warrior's when tanking. Bear Tanks rely alot more on a multiplicative damage based threat generation while Warrior Tanks rely more on additive "innate threat" skills like Sunder Armor. This means that as they start gearing up, a Bear Tank's threat generation scales up with the increases in Attack Power and Critical Strike rates. Druid Threat Multipliers Bear Tank's have both Threat-only multipliers and Damage-based threat multipliers for their two main threat generation skills. The formula is: Damage * Skill's threat multiplier * Bear form multiplier = threat generated The Bear form threat multiplier is identical to a Warrior's in Defensive Stance of 1.3 and just like 5/5 Defiance, 5/5 Feral Instinct adds another 15% for a total threat multiplier of 1.45. The Skill threat multiplier of Maul and Swipe are 1.75, as tested by Chibi of Shadow Moon here meaning they generate 175% of the equivalent mitigated damage done before any other multipliers. The talents Natural Weapons and Savage Fury add 1.1 and 1.2 multpliers respectively to damage done which in turn indirectly increases overall threat generated. Achieving Critical Mauls for over 1,000 in damage versus raid bosses is entirely possible for well geared Bear Tanks. Although auto-attacks and non-damage based threat like Faerie Fire(Feral) and Demoralizing Shout add to overall Threat Per Second, lets take the the example a non-critical Maul that hits for 500 damage which is easily achievable even in all Blue gear. Its total threat generated is given by the formula: 500 * 1.75 * 1.45 = 1268 This means that for every Maul that does 500 damage which a Bear Tank lands, a Mage with no threat reduction in place would need to output 1268 damage (507 DPS) to generate the same amount of threat or generate 20% more damage in order to pull aggro at range meaning 1522 damage (609 DPS). Also, given that with raid buffs a druid can easily reach Mauls for 600+ non-critical and that Druids also have the option of using Swipe as a rage dump and that a well-geared Bear Tank can have over 30% Critical Strike Rate fully buffed, it becomes clear that Druids can generate a truly astronomical amount of threat. This also means that a Bear Tank's threat generation and thus aggro-holding ability benefits more from damage and crit increasing buffs, as well as armor reducing debuffs like Sunder Armor, Expose Armor and Faerie Fire when applied to a trash mob/boss. Snap Aggro Druids have both a single target Taunt and an AOE Taunt. If the Bear Tank in question is a Feral Druid, they will most likely also have the talent of Feral Faerie Fire which requires no rage and greatly assists in intial aggro establishment as well as allowing a druid to perform a ranged pull without having to shift out of Bear form and use a mana based ranged spell. While Feral Faerie Fire's armor debuff does not stack, much like Sunder Armor, each application continues to generate some threat even when the debuff is already applied. Knockbacks Feral specialized Druids can almost immediately recover from knockbacks using Feral Charge. Warriors can achieve the same results using Intercept if they are quick and skilled at the maneuver since inflight Intercepts require extremely quick stance changes and is on a 30 second cooldown which i twice as long as Feral Charge. Fear Some encounters, notably Magmadar, Onyxia, and Nefarian, are made easier with fear-eliminating abilities. A Druid is not viable in these encounters as a Main Tank without the use of Fear Ward or Tremor Totems. Druids can also use fear-dispelling trinkets such as Insignia of the Alliance/Insignia of the Horde and the Glimmering Mithril Insignia, although these are all on high cooldowns. Disarm Druids cannot be disarmed in bear form, as they attack with natural weapons. This can be rather useful in encounters such as General Rajaxx. Emergency Buttons Druids have Frenzied Regeneration, consuming 10 rage per second for 10 seconds to heal for up to 200 health each tick and up to 300 on criticals of the ability. Each tick has the chance to critical heal. This ability is on a 3 minute cooldown. In addition they have the ability to use trinkets. In certain dire situations, a druid can switchstance from caster, and use Barkskin and Tranquility as a last-ditch effort. Though it is a very hit-or-miss tactic. (NS+HT is not an option for most Bear tanks please stop making that edit.) Druids can use items which are typically used pre-fight such as Flasks and several longer duration potions. However, as noted before, Druids cannot use consumables while in form. So they cannot be reapplied if they are somehow dispelled. Weapon Procs Druids cannot utilize "Chance on Hit" procs on weapons, precluding the use of Windfury, Crusader, and other enchants. They can, however, make use of "Chance on Hit" abilities in other slots. Polymorphing Bosses When a tank is polymorphed, they lose aggro. Druids are completely immune to polymorph in Bear Form, so they will not lose aggro. This comes in handy with encounters that Polymorph, such as: Jin'do the Hexxer and Blackwing Spellbinders in Blackwing Lair. Category:Druids